Tarnsman of Gor

Gorean Saga, Book 1

By: John Norman

Narrated by: Ralph Lister

Length: 7 hrs and 44 mins

Publisher's summary

Tarl Cabot has always believed himself to be a citizen of Earth. He has no inkling that his destiny is far greater than the small planet he has inhabited for the first 20-odd years of his life. One frosty winter night in the New England woods, he finds himself transported to the planet of Gor, also known as Counter-Earth, where everything is dramatically different from anything he has ever experienced. It emerges that Tarl is to be trained as a Tarnsman, one of the most honored positions in the rigid, caste-bound Gorean society. He is disciplined by the best teachers and warriors that Gor has to offer...but to what end?

This is the first book of John Norman's popular and controversial Gorean Saga, a series of novels the author began in 1967 with Tarnsman of Gor and are now considered cult classics. This audiobook is based on the definitive edition recently published by E-Books.

©2007 John Norman (P)2010 Brilliance Audio, Inc.

Good story!

I really liked the telling of this story, it was well written and well played.

Love love love!!!

I was recommended and I absolutely love this book, I'm going to get the rest of the Gor book series!!

Great job!

The first of the, by now, 29 books of the “Chronicles of the Counter Earth”. A must listen for anybody interested in the Gorean Lifestyle.

The narrator Ralph Lister is great and very clear even for now native English listeners.

I recommend it 100% and hope the whole series keep being published at this rate of one every a two months. I, for one, will keep buying.

rather disappointing

Any additional comments?

I have written several reviews for this website and most of them are fairly positive. Well unfortunately that is about to change. Before reading this book i had heard many mixed opinions about it and I came to the conclusion that it is a very controversial book and series. This controversy made me interested to give it a try and listen for myself. After finishing the book i kind of wish I hadn't. First, we have Normon's Characters, whitch as far as I am concerned are as flat as a board. I don't have to love my characters to get into a story, but they do have to be interesting. They were one dimensional and didn't seem to change at all in the story. The second problem was the plot. I agree with his double world idea and his transferring from one to the other is clever I admit. This is especially true because when he wrote this book it was a very original idea. However, without this concept the plot would be completely worthless. It is so straight forward and predictable it is sad. also, the author has a blunt way of writing, whitch lacks flare, whitch continued to destroy my image of the plot. Finally, i don't agree with his misagynistic views in this novel. It is his dicision to write his views into the novel or not, but it is mine to agree with them or not. The final straw to make this a bad book is the narrator. His narration is so boring and lack luster it made me struggle to finish the story altogether. I gave this book 3 stars because I understand that it is from the mid 1960s and fantasy as a genre was just starting out, but unless you like lack luster books with strange sexual views I wouldn't recommend it.

Slow start but really gets going

Creative pulp fantasy. Old school. If you liked John Carter of Mars you'll like this. Narrator voices and inflections are all wrong. I was willing to put up with it, but it's a shame. Took a star.

Book one of the series

In this book, Norman does a fair job of hooking the reader with the story, while spending ample time setting up the character backgrounds necessary for the series. You can clearly see his self-doubt as a writer, desiring to write a series of books and therefore laying the groundwork, but at the same time being unsure of how the book will be received in his current day and age of the 1960's. In real life, watching the progression of the war, and the cultural revolution of freedom, I can see where he could look at his own work and see that it might do well with those holding nostalgia for a "simpler" time from their history, while understanding that in the cultural revolution of free love and opening boundaries, the novel could easily be rejected roughly by society.

As fiction, he sets up great foundations for many aspects of current fiction with mounted warriors, strict codes of conduct within factions, a mysterious religion that is both vehemently regarded and secretly questioned as to it's validity. He also lays a strong foundation for the concept of a "man's-man" and conduct for those that are struggling to hide their own sexuality from a society that does not understand them, and his fleshing out of the roman-style human ownership lays the groundwork that became a strong element in today's Master/slave BDSM relationships.

Full-disclosure, I read many of the Gor books back in the 1980's, and was quite pleased to see them arrive on Audible. My wife is now listening to them for the first time, having heard of the series before, and is actually enjoying them. This tells me that the age-old series still has some life in it, and my own enjoyment doesn't stem solely from a nostalgic bias.

Delightful introduction to the series

I have wanted to read this series for a very long time. When I found the series had been done on Audible, I was super excited! I think the narration was wonderfully done, personally. I cant wait to listen to the next book. Thank you to the creator and the Audible team for all of your hard work!

becoming a Gorean

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

yes the book is funny

What other book might you compare Tarnsman of Gor to and why?

the whole seirse is good

Which character – as performed by Ralph Lister – was your favorite?

the Ubar's daughter

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

watch your back

Any additional comments?

once you start to read this book its hard to put down

good fantasy story

if you liked John Carter of Mars, you'll like this. is is of a vary similar style and I had as much fun reading this as I did that.

GREAT

Started reading the series at the urging of a friend - now I have sent her an invitation to join Audible so she can enjoy the books in spoken form. The narrator is awesome